Submitted by
Gard on Fri, 2003-11-07 23:39.
Quake 2 Key Entities
Download Sample Map
key_airstrike_target
key_blue_key
key_commander_head
key_data_cd
key_data_spinner
key_pass
key_power_cube
key_pyramid
key_red_key
You might be thinking thinking why the hell I did a tutorial over
keys cause they are just items that you can place anywhere and they have
no spawnflags or key value pairs to mess with. Well you are right. They
are very simple to put in your level but getting some use out of them
is a different story.
There are 9 different kinds of keys. They are key_airstrike_target, key_blue_key, key_commander_head, key_data_cd, key_data_spinner, key_pass, key_power_cube, key_pyramid, and key_red_key.
All of them act in exactly the same way, they just look different.
What's cool about the keys is that they can be used to trigger anything
you want them to, not just doors. You could have a key stop a turbine or
make a computer explode. The possibilities are endless.
To get the keys to do these kind of things you must use a few different entities. For example:
Lets make it so that you have to use a key_data_spinner to turn off a big fan.
- First we would make the fan of course and make it into a
func_rotating and then make the computer that you will stick the
key_data_spinner into that will turn off the fan. If you don't know how
to do this then I suggest you check out my tutorial on the func_rotating
entity. You also need to give the func_rotating a targetname. Lets give
it a targetname of fan. targetname=fan.
- The next thing we want
to do is to place a trigger_key somewhere in the level and target it to
the fan. target=fan. You should also give the trigger_key a targetname.
Lets give it a targetname of key. targetname key
- Next we need to
specify what item will be needed to trigger the func_rotating and turn
it off. You do this by setting the key value pair item to the name of
the key. So in this example we would set item=key_data_spinner on the
trigger_key entity.
- There is one more thing to do and that is
there must be a trigger where you want the key to be used that will
trigger the trigger_key entity. So we would go to the area we made where
the key_data_spinner will need to be placed and put a trigger_multiple
right in front of the area. The closer and smaller the better. Then
target the trigger_key with the trigger_multiple. In this example we
would set target=key for the trigger_multiple.

Hope this clears everything up for ya. Now this is just one little
example. There are unlimited uses for these keys. Instead of turning off
a fan the key to make some computers explode. One of the more noticable
uses of the keys that is in the id maps was the airstrike, which is
just the key_airstrike_target and a trigger_key that triggers the
misc_viper_bomb to fly by and a big explosion. I will definitly explain
this in a future tutorial.